Democracy Innovators Podcast

Paolo Spada on participatory budgeting, citizen assemblies, and scaling democratic innovation

Paolo Spada is a political scientist at the University of Southampton working on participatory budgeting, citizen assemblies, and democratic innovation. In this episode, we talk about feedback loops, scaling participation, political parties, online deliberation, and why democratic innovation needs stronger critique as it becomes more established. A central idea in the conversation is that scaling democratic participation is not mainly a technical problem. It is a political problem, and tools like AI only help when ownership, transparency, and accountability remain under democratic control. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. * PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG [https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG]

Antoine Vergne from Missions Publiques on scaling deliberative decision-making and random selection

Antoine Vergne is the co-director of Missions Publiques and the co-author of the ScaleDem Analytical Framework. His passion for innovating democratic processes is reflected in his academic background in political science and his nearly 15 years at Missions Publiques. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. * PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG [https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG]

Paul Zeitz about permanent citizens' assemblies in the US and using technology to scale it

Paul Zeitz is an author and advocate for global justice and human rights, among other things. With over 35 years of experience and several publications he is addressing systemic challenges. Especially in his book “Hit Refresh on the U.S. Constitution”, he calls for more deliberation in our democracies. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. * PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG [https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG]

Ben Nelson on the Minerva Project, reforming higher education and its role for democracy

Ben Nelson is founder and CEO of the Minerva Project and founder of the Minerva University. His mission is to reinvent higher education by utilising a systematic and evidence-based approach to learning. Drawing on his extensive entrepreneurial experience and keen awareness of societal issues, he offers valuable insights into the relationship between education and democracy, as well as the steps required to pursue one’s passion and achieve success. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. * PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG [https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG]

Cecile Green & Seth Frey on the Commoning Standard and the role of self-governance for democracy

Cecile Green is a social entrepreneur and Seth Frey is a computational social scientist. They share a mission to enable healthy self-organization and improve relationships in society, which naturally impacts democracy. Together, they work on the Commoning Standard, which unites stakeholders from research and practice to develop standards for effective self-governance. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. * PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG [https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG]